Skip to main content

Jo Cox, her assassination, the White Helmets, “humanitarianism,” and regime change

It is no coincidence that some of the world’s most ardent imperialists are behind the cynical exploitation of one heinous murder — of British MP Jo Cox — to enable global mass-murder as well as human trafficking under the pretext of “ethical” and “humanitarian” intervention.

by Vanessa Beeley and Whitney Webb

Part 6 - Nick Grono and the Clintons

Van Oranje is hardly the only Jo Cox Fund co-founder with a well-heeled foothold in the elite camp. Nick Grono, another co-founder of the fund, had worked with Jo Cox at an anti-slavery NGO, the Freedom Fund. Grono, who was appointed the group’s CEO in January of 2014, had also previously served in key posts at the NGO Walk Free, also aimed at ending modern-day slavery. Grono had also been Deputy President and Chief Operating Officer at the cutting edge “conflict resolution and prevention” cartel commonly known as the International Crisis Group (ICG).

The ICG board is comprised of a cadre of well-known elites such as Frank Giustra, longtime philanthropic partner of Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation; Carl Bildt; Emma Bonino; former NATO Chief Wesley Clark; George Soros; Alexander Soros — the list is extensive of those who are immensely influential in the globalist circles. Furthermore, the funding for ICG is paid by the United States government through the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and grants made on behalf of the U.S. Congress to foreign political organizations. Other Western countries, like the Netherlands, also contribute. Notably, Mabel van Oranje is also a past member of ICG. Once encased in such a gilded cage, it is easy to build upon such connections and to expand, as a philanthrocapitalist, into the most lucrative areas of humanitarian need.

The Freedom Fund was first announced by former U.S. President Bill Clinton at the 2013 annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York. It was founded with $30 million provided by three “philanthropic” foundations of powerful billionaires and financial interests: Humanity United, a foundation funded by Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pamela; the Legatum Foundation, the development arm of the Legatum group, a global private investment firm connected to mega-banks JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs; and the Minderoo Foundation, the foundation of Australian mining oligarch and the country’s richest man Andrew Forrest and his wife Nicola.

The Freedom Fund was described as an “ambitious seven-year effort to raise and deploy $100 million or more to combat modern-day slavery.” It was Bill Clinton who announced the fund’s creation, stating that “This is a huge deal and we should all support this.” Nick Grono was given the helm early on in the fund’s voyage, serving as its inaugural CEO. It is worth mentioning that the sincerity of Clinton’s enthusiasm for combating slavery and human trafficking is suspect, given that he was a regular visitor on pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet and has intervened on at least one occasion to protect known child traffickers.

Grono is also on the board of van Oranje-chaired group Girls Not Brides and was the inaugural CEO of the anti-slavery NGO Walk Free, which conveniently interlocks with the anti-slavery movement contained within Freedom Fund. Notably, Tim Dixon, another Jo Cox Fund founder, is co-founder of Purpose Europe, a branch of the Avaaz-fostered behavioral-change experts that market themselves as a “non-profit” while accepting donor contributions from some of the most influential foundations and political “change” drivers, such as Google. According to Cory Morningstar, a pioneer researcher into the NPIC (Not for Profit Industrial Complex): “Where, under the organization Avaaz, the public hasn’t acquiesced to an airstrike on Syria, the New York public relations firm Purpose Inc. has stepped in.

Dixon’s connections will be covered in greater depth in Part 2, but it is worth noting here that Dixon also connects into the van Oranje network. Under Dixon’s tutelage and according to his LinkedIn profile, Purpose “incubated” van Oranje’s Walk Free Foundation that is now listed among the high-profile “partners” on the Purpose website.

The flotilla of anti-slavery activists and sponsors who floated Freedom Fund were Humanity Utd, Minderoo, Legatum Foundation who were then joined by the Stardust Fund, the C & A Foundation, and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), which granted $10 million to the Freedom Fund over five years “to scale its anti-slavery work, with a particular focus on tackling the exploitation of children.”

These groups continue to back Freedom Fund, which also receives significant funding from the U.K. government and UBS, the multinational Switzerland-based investment bank.

A seminal paper written by Janie A. Chuang, an American professor of law, highlighted the pitfalls and risks involved in this particular area of philanthrocapitalism, a term Chuang invented in her essay. Chuang argues that “deep financial resources and access to powerful networks” give the philanthrocapitalists tremendous power to “shape the future trajectory of the anti-trafficking movement.” However, Chuang warns that this also gives these soft power moguls the ability to reconfigure and distort the landscape of global anti-trafficking policy-making and to contain it within a very limited power base that will monopolize the “market” and control the outcome.

The more sinister aspect of this overlap is that these capitalist NGO chains depend upon their ability to generate a revenue stream that sustains their positioning at the top of the fundraising pyramid. To what extent is the control they have over sectors of human suffering influenced by their need to meet the pay grade of their directors and board members? To what extent will these foundation-controlled NGOs sacrifice the agendas of their wealthy and powerful sponsors in favor of integrity and genuinely humanitarian objectives? In a nutshell, these anti-trafficking organizations depend upon human trafficking for their success, status and impact in an oversubscribed market.

***

Source, links:


[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Capitalism & Genocide - Yanis Varoufakis Speech at the Gaza Tribunal, 23rd October 2025, Istanbul

Yanis Varoufakis   On 23rd October, Yanis Varoufakis testified in front of the Jury of Conscience in the context of the Gaza Tribunal. His speech focused on the economic forces underpinning the genocide of the Palestinian people. In particular, he spoke on the manner in which capitalist dynamics have historically fuelled the white settler colonial project and, more recently, how the accumulation of a new form of capital - which he calls cloud capital - has accelerated, deepened and amplified the economic forces powering and propelling the machinery of genocide. 

Iranian Seyed M. Marandi: What REALLY happened in Iran & why U.S. wants to destroy the country

Li Jingjing 李菁菁   Track records of Western interventions tell us we need to be skeptical and cautious whenever some Western politicians and pundits claim they want to liberate people in another country and bring them democracy. Seyed Mohammad Marandi is a professor at the University of Tehran in Iran. In this episode, he told Li Jingjing what happened during the protests in Iran and how Western sanctions hurt the lives of ordinary Iranians.

Israel & CIA Behind Iran Protests To Get U.S. To Attack!

The Jimmy Dore Show    As protests in Iran have heated up, western media has actively exaggerated and selectively framed the violence by using casualty figures from U.S.- and Israel-funded NGOs — all in order to build public support for another regime-change war. Former CIA officer John Kiriakou and guest Scott Ritter claim protests were infiltrated by foreign intelligence networks and that Israel and the U.S. are using “human rights” narratives similarly to the way they were used in Iraq and Syria.   Dore and Ritter contend that Iran’s government responded to armed unrest rather than peaceful protest, while mainstream outlets ignore attacks on police and public infrastructure. They warn that propaganda, sanctions, and media coordination are laying the groundwork for a wider U.S.–Israel conflict with Iran. 

Iran’s Missiles will DESTROY US Bases & Israel if Trump Attacks

Danny Haiphong   Iran is ready for war, and its hypersonic ballistic missile system could destroy Israel & US military presence forever says Scott Ritter who joined the show to break down the consequences of Trump's march to war with Iran. The former UN Weapons Inspector does a deep dive into Iran's readiness and why it should terrify Trump & Israel together. 

US & Israel support protests in Iran: Trump calls for regime change

Geopolitical Economy Report   The US government is openly backing the protests in Iran. An Israeli media outlet admitted foreign powers are arming Iranian rioters with weapons to try to overthrow the government. Ben Norton explains the geopolitical context and why the USA has sought regime change ever since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.   

Exposed: USA plans to use this country to hurt China & help Israel

Geopolitical Economy Report   In Cold War Two, the USA is pressuring countries to cut ties with China and recognize Taiwan separatists. Donald Trump blatantly meddled in Honduras' 2025 election and backed a political coup to put in power right-wing oligarch Nasry "Tito" Asfura, who strongly supports Taiwan and Israel. Ben Norton discusses US imperialism in Latin America.  

Ο βασικός λόγος που ο Τραμπ διστάζει να χτυπήσει το Ιράν

"Μικρά και ασήμαντα" από τον Πίκο Απίκο Ο βασικός λόγος που δεν έγινε η επίθεση στο Ιράν, είναι το γεγονός ότι πρόσφατα, το Ιράν αποχώρησε από το δορυφορικό σύστημα GPS που είναι Αμερικανικό και εντάχθηκε στο Κινεζικό BeiDou. Που σημαίνει ότι οι Αμερικανοί δεν έχουν τη δυνατότητα να σαμποτάρουν τους Ιρανικούς πυραύλους.  Έτσι εξηγείται και το μεγάλο ποσοστό ευστοχίας των Ιρανικών πυραύλων στην τελευταία σύγκρουση με το Ισραήλ, μέσα στο Ισραηλινό έδαφος. Αλλά και το γεγονός ότι πριν λίγες μέρες, οι ίδιοι οι Ισραηλινοί ζήτησαν τη διαμεσολάβηση της Ρωσίας, προκειμένου να αποκλιμακωθεί η ένταση με το Ιράν, αφού Ισραηλινές εφημερίδες και αξιωματούχοι είχαν παραδεχθεί ανοιχτά την παρουσία πρακτόρων της Μοσάντ σε Ιρανικό έδαφος και τον κομβικό τους ρόλο στις πρόσφατες εξεγέρσεις. Οι Αμερικανοί επομένως γνωρίζουν ότι αυτή τη στιγμή οι Ιρανοί έχουν τη δυνατότητα να χτυπήσουν Αμερικανικές βάσεις (όπως απείλησαν ότι θα κάνουν αν ο Τραμπ κάνει πράξη τις απειλές του), χωρίς να μπορούν να ...

A response to misinformation on Nicaragua: it was a coup, not a ‘massacre’

There is so much misinformation in mainstream corporate media about recent events in Nicaragua that it is a pity that Mary Ellsberg’s article for Pulse has added to it with a seemingly leftish critique. Ellsberg claims that recent articles, including from this website, often “ paint a picture of the crisis in Nicaragua that is dangerously misleading. ” Unfortunately, her own article does just that. It looks at the situation entirely from the perspective of those opposing Daniel Ortega’s government while whitewashing their malevolent behavior and downplaying the levels of US support they have relied on. Her piece is an incomplete depiction of what is happening on the ground, ignoring many salient facts that have come to light and which have been outdated by recent events. The following is a brief response to Ellsberg’s main points from someone who lives in Nicaragua and has observed the situation directly and intimately: https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/15/a-res...

Jeffrey Sachs: The US is a violent regime

CGTN   Shortly after US President Donald Trump announced on social media that American forces had carried out military actions against Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were forcibly taken to New York City to face US charges including narco-trafficking. Speaking with CGTN's Tian Wei, Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs warned that such actions reflect a broader pattern of militarized US foreign policy. By sidelining international law and disregarding the UN Charter, Washington is undermining the very framework meant to safeguard global peace and prevent another era of devastating wars. 

The real reason Trump hesitates to strike Iran

globinfo freexchange   Recent statements by the Iranian leadership concerning the ability of Iran to hit US military bases, should not be taken lightly. It is not just the missile capability and - in some cases - even superiority of Iran in the broader region. That alone, would not be enough for Washington to take Tehran's threats seriously.    It has to do also with a strategic move by Iran in the geopolitical battlefield that changes the balance decisively in the war field too. As Pakistan Today reported back in July 2025:   In two recent wars that nearly tipped the world into a full-scale global conflict— one between Pakistan and India, and the other between Iran and Israel— a new determinant of military dominance emerged. In both cases, countries under pressure, Pakistan and Iran, not only stood their ground but struck deep into enemy territory with astonishing precision and devastating impact.  ... in a 12-day war with Israel, Iran destroyed numerous h...